UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!

CHAPTER V

WEN RITES

 

1. NYING, CHIIK, WEN, PAGREM

According to the Bulsa, in addition to the body (sing. nying; pl. nyingsa), every human being has spiritual components that are closely connected to their life, such as chiik (pl. chiisa), wen (pl. wena), and pagrem.

Chiik

While the wen is always outside the body and can have a strong, fateful influence on the body and way of life from there, the chiik (often translated as “soul”) is bound to the body more strongly. It is not located in a specific organ but in all parts of the body.

Where the chiik comes from does not seem to be clear to many Bulsa, although one often hears the answer “From God” (Naawen) or “From heaven” (wen). In any case, I did not receive any information from the Bulsa about a place of residence for all souls (chiisa) before birth, where each soul has its own existence and can, for instance, express wishes for a later life on earth to Naawen (God), as described by J. Zwernemann [endnote 1] about several neighbouring ethnic groups of the Bulsa.

According to an idea that is probably not very widespread and contradictory to other information, every human being has three souls: the first goes to God after death; the second remains in the dead body; and the third, called sitana, which tempts man to perform evil deeds during his lifetime, dies with the body.

According to the view of most Bulsa, chiik and the embryo have already united before birth, because it can also be said of an unborn child that “it has a strong soul” (wa ta chiik pagrik). The last statement shows that the chiik can be classified by a pair of opposites, strong and weak (pagrik–baasing). The bearer of a strong soul can hardly be harmed by magical means, whereas the holder of a weak soul is very susceptible to harmful spells and diseases, among others {141}.

The soul of a person can leave them at night while they are asleep and revisit faraway places that the bearer has once seen. The sleeping person experiences the wanderings and experiences of their soul in his dreams. Particularly, places that they have been to in the past are often revisited by the soul during sleep. The soul’s nocturnal wanderings are not without danger, for it may encounter witches (sing. sakpak; pl. sakpaksa) who pursue it to transform it into an animal, hold it captive, and later devour it [endnote 2]. The sleeping owner of the soul will also learn of these persecutions in a horrific dream [endnote 3].

If the soul has been consumed by a witch or a sorcerer, the health of the bearer visibly deteriorates, and they may die within the next few days. By no means, however, does the death of the body occur simultaneously with the extinction of the soul’s earthly viability. If the soul is held captive by a witch only in animal form in a hollow tree – i.e., if the body lives with an “empty soul” (chi-fogluk) – countermeasures can still be taken.

When the daughter of my assistant Danlardy (Wiaga) complained of indisposition and stomach ache, her father went to a diviner with healing knowledge in Kanjaga. He found that the daughter’s indisposition was due to her soul leaving (yitika) the body. The deeper cause was that Danlardy’s father Leander Amoak, who had financed his son’s education, considered his son ungrateful. Among other therapeutic practices, the diviner prescribed the sacrifice of a cock to Leander’s wen.

My Sandema assistant Godfrey Achaw recalls that when his brother fell ill, his father thought of witchcraft as the cause of the illness. After a diviner’s consultation in which the suspicion was confirmed, all the inhabitants of the house moved to a pile of stones about 50 cm high near the house, which had the function of an “altar” to the earth deity (teng). The father, in his capacity as yeri-nyono, killed a chicken and let some of the blood run into a clay pot (tibiik), which was placed in front of the cairn and filled with fresh water beforehand. All those present had to drink from this blood–water mixture, and if the witch (the sorcerer) had been among those gathered, she (he) would have died immediately. If she (he) refused to drink, she (he) would have been exposed as a witch (wizard). Later, a new wooden hammer (sing. guri; pl. gue) was placed on the altar of the teng, with which this deity could slay the witch (sorcerer) if she (he) was not among those present. The death of the guilty person would release the imprisoned soul. If the soul in animal form has already been eaten, there are no means left to save the sick person {142}.

In 2006, I was able to observe and document an earth ordeal (teng-nyuka) in Anyenangdu Yeri (Wiaga Badomsa). In my compound, there were suspicions for some time that at least one or two residents were harming the compound through witchcraft (sakpagni), and a few months before the ordeal, two important people had died. On 20 January 2006, the compound head called all the inhabitants together in the large courtyard (ma-dok) belonging to his first wife (ma-dok) to perform the ordeal of drinking earth. Although, in the case observed, it was performed with earth from the tanggbain Pung Muning, I was assured that when an ordeal was performed with ma-bage earth, everything would be done in exactly the same way.ound 8.00 a.m.), the yeri-nyono delivered a long speech. It contained more or less what Anamogsi had also told me personally. In his compound, there was “shamefulness” (bulorim; he avoided the word sakpagni), which led to the deaths of several people. He was very moved by these events but did not know the reason for the deaths. The inhabitants, however, could not speculate and make false suspicions. The teng-nyuka ordeal would provide clarity.

Before offering millet water to the shrine of his father Anyenangdu, Anamogsi poured the unoffered part of the millet water into a large kpalabik in the middle of the courtyard, then added water and earth, and stirred everything into thin earth water, from which smaller quantities were later taken with a calabash bowl for each concerned person. He hung three medicine horns around his neck and was the first to drink from a calabash. His sons followed in order of age, then their wives with children without observing any seniority rule, and finally other people, including me. During the drinking of the earth, another small brown chicken was offered to Anyenangdu.

When, in a conversation with Anamogsi after the ritual, I asked about people who had not participated in the ordeal (and who were particularly suspected), he replied that they were no longer part of his household community. (They had also built their own compounds in the meantime.)

Everyone who drank the earth was then considered innocent because no illness or even death occurred after drinking it.

If a person dies a natural death – i.e., not by witchcraft – his soul (chiik) remains in the compound, even after the burial of the body, until the funeral is held – namely in the immediate vicinity of the sleeping mat of the deceased in the kpilima-dok (ancestral room). During this time, the soul also receives food from its inhabitants. However, the latter takes the food, apparently untouched, from the room (e.g., kpilima-dok) of the mat again after a few minutes. The food offered [endnote 4] can still be consumed by animals and relatives who are not too close to the dead person, even though all nutritional value has supposedly been taken from it by the dead person. Only the dead who have become ghosts (sing. kok; pl. kokta) eat the food even in the material sense.

There are contradictory opinions about the fate of the soul after the funeral for the dead. Some informants claim that the soul reteurns to God (Naawen) or heaven (wen). The most popular idea is that the soul goes to the precisely localisable realm of the dead [endnote 5] of  the corresponding clan section. According to Leander, Naawen assigns the soul a place in the realm of the dead. Here, the soul adopts an illusory body again, for if a relative comes to this place, he can behold all his deceased relatives and ancestors in their material bodies. However, the curious visitor would have to pay for this sight with his life, for the dead do not let any living relatives leave their realm again. A stranger will see nothing at all. The assumption that the souls adopt their bodies (nying) again must not be understood in the material way a Bulo assumes – e.g., that after the funeral for the dead, their grave is empty.

At least for a certain time after death, the souls of witches and sorcerers become ghosts (pl. kokta; sing. kok) with new illusory bodies [endnote 5a]. If they touch a living person at night, the latter will die soon afterwards. As Godfrey told me, a few Bulsa who were touched by a kok preferred to end their lives with poison. Interestingly, ghosts (kokta) do not live without danger either. They can be eaten in the bush by hyenas (sing. piuk; pl. piina), and a small injury – e.g., by a thorn – can easily lead to their final death {143}.

A linguistic peculiarity needs further investigation. The term wen is also the term for “sun” and “sky”, and chiik is the Buli name for “moon”. I will demonstrate the connection between the wen meanings of “sun” and “personal destiny” below. I have not been able to find convincing evidence for a connection in content between chíík = moon and chíík = soul. (Both words have a high tone!) Some informants simply claim that it is a coincidence that the same word is used for two different meanings. I could not find among the Bulsa the idea held by other African ethnic groups (e.g., the San in South Africa) that unborn souls are on the moon. However, I found the following interesting reference in the vocabulary index of the Sandema Presbyterian Mission under the keyword chingmarek:

chingmarek = star (lit. scattered moon); chingmarek is connected with men’s chiisa (souls) – e.g., a falling star means death.

Wen

As will be shown in the following section, the Bulsa conception of the wen, a fate-determining force, is completely different from that of the chiik. The wen descends from heaven to earth only months or years after birth; it is always outside the human being and bound to a material object (a mound of clay with a stone, three stones, earth in a clay pot, and so on), even though it can leave this seat for a short time [endnote 4a]. Unlike the chiik, it claims cultic veneration through sacrifices, is not subject to persecution by witches, and is not affected by the death of the bearer. It confronts the person concerned more strongly as a strange spirit with whom the ego is connected only in a supernatural way. After death, especially after attaining ancestral status, there are fewer distinctions between the person and their wen. For example, one may say, “I sacrifice to my father” (not to my father’s wen).

Pagrem

If it was indicated above that the soul (chiik) can be strong or weak, strength (pagrem) can be another immaterial principle that can refer to the soul as well as the body. This is because the soul is, after all, an image of the body and can once again repeat the actions and experiences of the body at night. The following subconcepts of pagrem are apparently essential: kokta pagrem, kpalem pagrem, nying yogsa pagrem, and wen pagrem {144}.

Kokta pagrem: This is a person’s power of defence against ghosts (kokta) and other evil spirits as well as their ability to detect ghosts. Old men always have kokta pagrem to a greater extent than young people [endnote 5b]. This explains, for instance, the fact that old men often allow the white researcher greater insight into their religious and ritual lives than younger ones, even if the latter have attended school for some years and are quite open-minded in other areas of knowledge. The white man also possesses kokta pagrem, which is not fundamentally larger or smaller than that of the black man. Kokta pagrem is often seen as a quantitative and measurable force, and it can even lie outside the human body, as the following example of a life event of Ayarik (Wiaga-Tandem-Zuedema) shows, which occurred after visiting his girlfriend in Chuchuliga and on his way home at night:

Immediately [after] I arrived at the Sandema chief’s farm I had a bad thought, and somehow I became very curious. I therefore looked all over here and there, but I could not find anything on the way. I moved some few yards from the scene, and I saw that some creature was standing by the road. When I wanted to pass, it attempted to stop me by walking towards me. I could not help [but resort to] pulling up a hand ring, which my father gave me, when I was leaving for Chuchuliga in the morning for protection. As soon as I pulled the ring, it [the creature] fell flat on the back, and I started walking very fast. I walked for about two hours, before I pulled down my ring in order to let the ghost get up, otherwise my ring would not work again, in case I might face the same trouble on the way.

As the informant explained to me verbally, pulling up the bangle released the kokta pagrem that was stored in it. However, Ayarik did not intend to “discharge” the ring completely, as he wanted to store the kokta pagrem for another attack by an evil spirit. The storage of kokta pagrem in the ring had been arranged by Ayarik’s father, who, as a gravedigger himself, had a high level of kokta pagrem. The ring can also be “charged” a second and third time {145}.

Kpalem pagrem: This “fighting power” reaches its peak in a young man with fully developed physical strength. According to the possession of kpalem pagrem, the leader in a shepherd’s group of children aged about 6–12 is determined (by wrestling), and all group members are given their place in a “pecking order” in the group according to the extent to which they possess kpalem pagrem.

Moreover, those who can eliminate other rivals when courting a girl also possess a high degree of kpalem pagrem. It can be further increased by magical–medical measures – e.g., by making incisions in the upper arm into which a certain medicine is rubbed.

Nying yogsa pagrem: This “power of the healthy (lit. cold) body” is expressed, for instance, by the strength shown while working in the field or by sexual power and is a prerequisite for kpalem pagrem. It decreases through work, sexual intercourse, and struggles and must, therefore, be replaced by the intake of food.

Wen pagrem: This is the power that man receives from his “personal wen” (tintueta-wen) (see below). It manifests mainly in fateful areas of life, such as crop failure, professional success, or school career. If someone happens to find a significant amount of money, they are said to have a high level of wen pagrem. Health and, thus, nying yogsa pagrem are also granted by wen pagrem but not by kpalem pagrem and kokta pagrem. The measure of wen pagrem that one receives from the wen can be positively influenced by sacrifice and obedience to the personal wen.

Pagrem, in a general sense, can be possessed by men and women; only kpalem pagrem usually occurs to a lesser extent in women. It disappears with death, and only kokta pagrem can sometimes continue to exist for some time by magical–medicinal means if the dead person himself has become a ghost (kok) {146}.

 

2. WEN-PIIRIKA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a) A wen-piirika celebration in Asik Yeri (Badomsa, 25 August 1973) [endnote 6]

When Leander’s six-year-old son Akapami was ailing and even had to visit the Navrongo hospital for a short time, he went to a diviner, who found out that the child’s wen wanted to “come down” into a bogluk [endnote 7], where a chicken should be sacrificed to it. Then, Leander was referred to a second diviner, Akai Adaatiim, who set the date for the erection of the wen-bogluk to 25 August 1973 and gave instructions that Leander’s wife should grind sprouted (germinated?) millet for pito three days after this visit. Akapami was not allowed to know what these preparations were for; he had to be in complete ignorance until the morning of the feast day. A day before the appointed one (i.e., 24 August 1973), Leander went to his house in Badomsa, and Ayomo Atiim, the ten-year-old officiating yeri-nyono, offered millet water to Leander’s father Asik; Leander’s father’s father Adeween; Asik’s and Adeween’s grandmothers (MM), whose wena were by the puuk pots in the kpilima-dok); and Leander’s mother, whose wen was by the footpath in front of the compound in or near a bogluk made of two stones [endnote 7a] (cf. Fig. 43: the genealogical overview of p. 179 as well as the location sketch chapter V3d [p. 182]). The millet in the sacrificed millet water had to be from the previous year. Only the sacrificer Ayomo Atiim and Leander, who said the prayers, were present.

During the whole night before 25 August 1973, the diviner Akai and his assistant Achang Akasilik stayed near the compound, and twice during the night, the two appeared at the compound entrance. I could hear the rattle and monotone voice of the diviner, but his activity had not come to my attention. Leander told me that the diviner had to protect the house from evil spirits. In order to be able to perform the early morning ceremony, Akai was not allowed to wash his body {147}.

Even before the first signs of dawn appeared, it was about 4.30 a.m., the diviner appeared at the compound door for the third time. He tapped his stick against the entrance cones (zamonguuni) made of clay and called three times:

Akapami nyin pielim a tuesi fi weni.

Akapami come out to the forecourt [pielim] to get your wen.

Then, Leander escorted the mother and child (Akapami) to the entrance. (It must be noted here that it was not Akapami’s biological mother who had come to Badomsa but Leander’s first wife, who has maternity rights over all of Leander’s children.) The ashes of ordinary firewood were put in Akapami’s left hand. The “mother” covered the child’s eyes with her hand. The diviner’s assistant Achang closed the diviner’s eyes with his hand, opened the gate to the compound, and the diviner blew (pobsi) the ashes in his left hand towards Akapami, while Akapami blew his ashes towards the diviner. Then, both of their faces were uncovered, and the diviner lightly struck the child’s head three times with his rattle [endnote 7b].

Before sunrise, the inhabitants and guests gathered in front of the house. They let a pile of straw (and brushwood?) burn with a bright flame without adding wood . According to Leander, this was a sign to the neighbours that something important was about to happen in this house.

The diviner and another assistant Akasilik, who also came from a neighbouring house in Badomsa and did not have divination powers himself, prepared a medicine. On the footpath where a hole was later dug in the ground, Akasilik crushed a white fibre together with pito residue (pl. da-binta; sing. da-beung) [endnote 7c]. The fibre came from a waaung-soluk tree (Annona senegalensis) whose roots are also used in some areas for the naming pot (tibiik) (cf. chapter IIIA2, p. {70}) and which was called “blessed tree” or “smooth tree” (tii saglik) by Leander {148}.

A small live chicken, whose white colour, according to Leander, was supposed to symbolise happiness and joy, was brought to the mortar to be later taken alive by the diviner to his house.

The diviner then dug a hole about 25 cm in diameter with a sharp stone in the footpath that led through a millet field (cf. Fig. 26), while Ayomo Atiim fetched water from the well in an earthenware pot. Under no circumstances was he allowed to spill any of it if the conduct of the whole festival was not to be jeopardised. The water was then mixed with the crushed fibres in a calabash and some of the excavated earth to form a loamy paste. From this, the diviner formed three fist-sized balls and one slightly larger one and placed them in the hole. In the meantime, the assistant looked for a few small stones. They were ordinary stones and not the round, white stones found in the ancestral bogluta. The diviner chose one of the stones offered to him. Then, he plucked some feathers from the white chicken’s wings and put them into the damp mud balls. In the big clay ball, he made a small hole, spat into it three times, and instructed Akapami to do the same. As Leander explained to me, this partial rite gave its name to the personal wen (tintueta-wen or “saliva”-wen) [endnote 8], for this type of bogluk, unlike the ancestral bogluta, always has the saliva of its living owner.

After spitting, the diviner took some leftover white fibres soaked with pito residue and stroked them three times over Akapami’s body: his back, neck, head, face, chest, and belly. Then, they waited eagerly for the sun to become visible. Akapami held the large clay ball in his hands (cf. Fig. 29). The sun had risen earlier, but until then, it had been hiding behind clouds. When it was exactly half visible, the diviner pressed the stone halfway into the large clay ball. This was the most important ritual of the day, for at that moment Akapami’s wen entered the stone from the solar disc. The diviner moved his calabash rattle (sing. baan-kayak; pl. baan-kayaksa) while saying the following words {149}:

Akagoom zaani wa wen zaana jigi [three times]. Ni nyini maari zaani Akagoom wa ale wa wen zaani ka jigi.

Akagoom [correctly Akapami] is standing at the location of his wen. Come out [address to all present] and help Akagoom, who is standing at the location of his wen.

The Buli text was recorded on a tape by me at the wen-piirika and later transcribed into English by my interpreter Godfrey Achaw. Although the rattles make it somewhat difficult to understand, there is no reason to doubt that the text below was spoken by the diviner. However, Leander, to whom I later showed the text, claimed that the following words were spoken:

Akapami, dag fi wen zaana jigi [three times]. Ni meena nyin maa dagi Akapami wen zaana jigi ate n zaani [three times].

Akapami, show me the location of your wen [three times]. All of you, come out and also show me the location of Akapami’s wen, so that I may set it [the wen-bogluk] up.

The  hole dug in the ground was then covered with a large calabash bowl, under which the live white chicken and the unchosen smaller balls of earth were placed {Fig. 30}. The larger earth ball with the stone was brought inside the compound in a procession. It was carried by the child’s “mother” on her head in a calabash that had never been used before. At the entrance to the house, the diviner, according to Leander, spoke the following words again (?) [endnote 9]:

Akapami dag fi wen zaana jigi [three times]. Ni meena nyin maa dagi Akapami wen zaana jigi ate n zaani [three times]. (For a translation, see above.)

In the courtyard, the same sentences were recited for the third time by Akai.

Then, Leander showed the diviner where the new bogluk was to be placed, and the diviner pressed the damp ball of earth onto the {150} ground and formed the sides so that the new bogluk took on a hemispherical shape. Akai took off his outer garment and prepared everything for the sacrificial acts.

Before killing the chicken, Akai and his assistant Achang spoke the following prayers to Akapami’s wen [endnote 9a]:

Akai Adaatiim: Ma yaali ain n zaani ni nangta po kama. Ayaalege se ka wa nyinka nin yok ngololoo, ate ti seb wa yaa ale chim nur, ate ku nala. Ate ti kan ngman wom ain wa nying tuiling ya.

Kisuk ate ku ta cheen jaa paai bena ko ate ti seb nya ale wa daam sum yuen wensie, ayaalege ain dan ka daam wa ale tom diila ate taa pa va. Nyiam ale nna. Nichanoa dan jam baa tuk ka nyiam wa noi, nyiam be ale nna. Kpiak ale nna, kpa-nubi sobluk ate wa ta jam ain wa te fu. Nyiamu nna moong (wa) noi ya. Goom due ate wa nyinka yok ngololoo ate n seb nya ka fi ale la, ate wa chim nur.

Achang Akasilik: Ain taa ale yuen diila taa yueni ka dila, biam jam boro bu boka tama me dek jigi. Alege tama me dan lak ka poi a tom taa me a yaali ka poi peentik. Ate ti nya ale biika nyinka yok nalem nyini ate wa yiti maa bo wa chaab po. Ale fi dan biak biik ate wa joe kinkangi a nyini, fi basi kama. Wa me dan sum boro wa tuesi wa kpiaka ate ti nya. Ti ka wari a gaam dila. Tama nisapo wani ale la.

Akai Adaatiim: Yaa! Biik tee a nyeka ye kpeensa. Fi kpiaka ale nna. Biika nisa ale nna. Ain dan ka wensie ate fi soa nyinka tuilinka, ta yueni ka nyinka tuilinka, wa wa peenti ka fi. Wa kpiak ale nna. Kpanubi sobluk ain n vi fi zuk ate fu, fi wari ale a la, ate wa nyinka yok ngololoo, ate ti seb ain fi sum tuesi ngoa; daam ale nna ate ta ti sugri ziimu a basi ate ti nya wa nyinka a leka dii. Ti ale nya ale wa nyinka a yogsa, ate ti nya wapaala. A nya ale wa me chala a tam ate ti kan ngman gisi wa genga. Ngoa! {151}

I wish to stand at your feet [i.e., before the bogluk]. But only when his [Akapami’s] body becomes cold [when he becomes healthy] do we know that he becomes a man, and that is good. And we don’t hear again that his body is hot [that he is ill].

Today and a hundred years from now, we will know and see that it [the wen] once really spoke the truth. But if it used to be so [in the past] it is done today; then we follow [do the same]. This is water. When a stranger comes, you give water to his mouth [tuk nyiam; lit. to catch water running from a roof]. This is water. This is a chicken, a black female chicken, which he [Akapami] brings to give to you [the wen]. Here is the water, [take it and] wet your mouth. Sleep well [lit. down] so his body may become cool, and I know and see that it is you and that he [Akapami] will become a man.

Achang Akasilik: Yes, we who said this, said so [i.e., it is true]. If there is any evil, it is with ourselves. But if this is also true [lit. when we open our stomachs to work], we also desire joy [lit. a bright stomach] and we see that the child’s body becomes cool enough. He [Akapami] gets up and is with his playmates. If one [lit. you] gives birth to a child and it climbs over the inner wall of the compound and comes out, one certainly allows it. If it [the wen] is really here, it gets its chicken, and we shall see. We have nothing more to say. It is the thing in our hands [i.e., now the chicken must be sacrificed].

Akai Adaatiim: Yes! Talking for a long time does not create anything big. Your chicken is here. The child’s hand is here. If it is the truth that you [the wen] are the cause of the heat of the body and we are talking about the heat of the body, the truth will be revealed to you. This is his chicken. A female {152} black chicken that I am putting on you for you. It is your business that his body becomes cool, and we know [then] that you have really accepted [the sacrifice]. Here is Pito so that we can wash off the blood and see how his body is. We see that his body becomes cool, and we see new things. And we also see him [Akapami] walking around, and we don’t think about his [sick] appearance again. Take it [the sacrifice]!

According to Leander, who checked the transcript of Godfrey Achaw’s transcription from the tape and its translation, Achang also spoke the following words [endnote 10]:

Dila nying, Akapami nya wen jinla de, taa poli Naawen peeluk kpiongku ale te biika nying yogsa. Wensie me dan sum boro, wen pieni ale tengka, ale tangabana, ale kpilima meena, maari a te Akapami.

That is why Akapami sees his wen today. We believe that the white great God [Naawen] gives health to the child. If this is really the truth, the great God, the earth, the tanggbana, and all the ancestors are helping Akapami.

The form of speech chosen here ABA is quite common in such matters – i.e., usually, one speaker (the diviner) begins and is interrupted by another (here, the diviner’s assistant), and finally, the first speaker continues his thoughts in a third part.

Following the prayer, the diviner offered millet water to the new bogluk, and thereafter, a fat, dark chicken was decapitated. After this, it fluttered for a longer time and finally lay still on one side – i.e., the wen had accepted the sacrifice [endnote 11]. The diviner was not allowed to eat anything from this chicken. Therefore, a guinea fowl was prepared for him as a friendly gift, but it had no sacred function.

Of the three [endnote 12] clay pots with pito that stood in the inner courtyard, the small and medium ones were used for the sacrificial purposes of that day and for entertaining the guests, while the large one was given to the diviner as a {153} gift. From the small pot, pito was poured into a calabash and offered from this calabash to the Akapami’s wen. The rest was distributed among those present. The millet beer offered there was not fermented in order to symbolise (according to Leander) Akapami’s childhood. As Leander did not like unfermented pito, he did not take part in the sacrificial meal, while I was offered a calabash of this pito.

After this, there was a break of about an hour in the ritual events, during which the women of the house prepared the dark chicken and TZ, which the diviner was not allowed to eat, and a special meal (with guinea fowl) for the diviner. Around 10.00 a.m., the diviner offered clear water, TZ, some meat, and the liver of the now-cooked black chicken to the new wen-bogluk. After this, fermented millet beer was offered.

The diviner and his assistant then retired to the kpilima-dok for a complete divination session to explore whether everything had been done properly. When the result was positive, Leander thanked the diviner for his efforts.

In summary, all the gifts or payments that the diviner received in the course of the day or was receiving while parting are listed here once again:

1. A basket of ungrained panicle millet (zamonta) from the previous year

2. The live white chicken used by the diviner in his house for sacrificial purposes

3. A part of the cooked black chicken from which some meat and the liver were sacrificed and from which Akapami received a thigh

4. A large pot of pito

5. A live brown chicken that the diviner could use for any purpose

Finally, Leander, in his capacity as Akapami’s father, sacrificed pito (through Ayomo) to the female ancestors Abandemlie and Aguutabe in the kpilima-dok, his father and grandfather in front of the compound, and his mother (two-stone-bogluk on the way) {154}.

Three days after the wen-piirika rites, Leander showed his son Akapami how he had to sacrifice to his wen from then on. This sacrifice is called tu-poak-laka (opening the baobab shell) [endnote 12a]. Since then, all offerings to the new wen-bogluk were made by Akapami himself. Adults could give instructions but were not allowed to interfere with the offering.

 

 

b) Additions by other informants (before 1978)

In contrast to the information on naming, there was significant consensus among the various informants who offered information about the wen-piirika, although none of them could report as many details as I could record through my own observations, tape, photos, and notes.

The timing (August) of the wen-piirika described above can be considered somewhat unusual. It is true that the erection of a wen-bogluk is not bound to any season because diseases and educational difficulties can occur at any time. However, there are some reasons that make this ceremony more acceptable for the dry season (November to April). Not only is a day lost for fieldwork in the rainy season, but also, above all, the need for direct contact between the wen stone and the sun’s rays adds a great deal of uncertainty in the rainy season. I have heard that a whole festival party often waits for hours in the rainy season for the sun to become visible, and sometimes, after waiting in vain, the sacred act has to be postponed by the diviner to another date.

If, in the wen-piirika described above, the main cause for the establishment of a wen-bogluk was an illness of the child, it is also not the only reason. Just as often, educational difficulties seem to lead to the creation of a bogluk. For older people, failures at work, constant threats, quarrels, misfortunes, and so on can also cause the establishment of a wen-bogluk.

Abang, a man of about 25 years from Wiaga-Kubelinsa, told me about the trouble he caused his parents before {155} his wen got a bogluk. He killed his father’s chickens just for pleasure. Once, when he had to ensure that no animals went to the sprouted millet, he beat a goat who wanted to eat the millet so badly that it died. The father then went to the diviner, who found out that the boy’s wen needed a bogluk. On the evening before the feast day, Abang already wanted to drink from the sacrificial pito, which of course could not be allowed, as his wen was to taste it first. Therefore, that very evening, the boy ran away from his parents to a friend’s house. The father lured him back under the pretext that he wanted to slaughter a goat, and Abang had to hold it while he did so. When the boy expected a roasted goat, he came back. However, the goat could not be slaughtered that same evening, and early the next morning, the boy heard the rattles of the diviner. Ash blowing (pobsika), according to him, did not exist in Kubelinsa on this occasion; however, he remembered the three stick (rattle?) blows of the diviner well. The rest of the wen-piirika rites took place in Kubelinsa in the same way it did at Leander’s house.

According to a Sandema-Longsa source, the youngster getting the bogluk is always required to fetch a calabash full of water to make the clay paste.

While doing so, the child is only allowed to scoop once (according to other information, only with his left hand) and is not allowed to spill any water on the way. Leander also knows this provision. However, he thinks that someone else (e.g., the yeri nyono) can also fetch the water if the child is still too small or too clumsy.

Atiinka from Sandema-Kalijiisa gave a detailed account of the day he received his wen-bogluk in his life story. The correspondence with the above-described ritual sequence of the wen-piirika in Leander’s house is astonishing, considering the wide variation in naming rites in the Bulsa area. Even the prayer of the diviner to the child’s wen shows similarities with that of the diviner Akai {156}:

… the sacrificer said that this was my personal god who had come down to me. So it was a true god, who should help me with illness and everything I grew up to do.

In all the accounts of wen-piirika celebrations, the events and conflicts that lead the father to seek out the diviner for his son are very revealing. A special study on educational conflicts among the Bulsa could very well start with the motivations for a wen-piirika. Atiinka reports the following from the prehistory of the establishment of his wen-bogluk:

I didn’t like my father, because he always quarrelled with my mother. Because of the quarrels my mother left me and married away. The time my mother married away I took a bow and arrow to shoot my father to death, because he drove away my mother. All that time my father was on the look-out, because he did not really know what was in my mind.

One day in the night they gave me food that wasn’t sufficient for me, so I took my bow and arrow and aimed it at him but one of his wives was watching me and she shouted out to my father to wake up; he woke up before I pushed out my arrow. Luckily it was on his tie. That very night he went to a fortuneteller (diviner) and brought the news that it was my personal god who wanted to come down. That was why it was worrying me like that.

c) Supplements after 1974

After 1974, I had the opportunity to participate in ten more Bulsa wen-piirika rituals. Most of these took place during my research stay in 1988–1989. The diviner Akanming, whose compound was close to my compound Anyenangdu Yeri, decided to train me as a diviner (baano) after all his sons had refused such a job. He, therefore, gave me regular lessons in his divination room (jadok-dok), in which he explained to me, for instance, the meaning of the symbolic objects in his divination bag (baan-yui) and asked me about them during the next session.

I was also to learn how to perform a wen-piirika by taking part in all the rituals of this kind that he performed. To his annoyance, I missed three of all the wen-piirika rites he performed in 1988–1989.

Since the wen-piirika celebrations listed below were, to a large extent, similar to those described above for Asik Yeri, the following list contains only the external data (the time, compound, and occasion for the ritual, among others) as well as deviations from the 1973 wen-piirika described in detail.

 

1. Asik Yeri (Badomsa), 21 August 1981: The second wen-piirika for Leander’s son Francis Afarinmonsa by the diviner Akai (Badomsa)

Francis had already received his wen-bogluk some years ago, but according to Leander’s testimony, he continued to show signs of mental confusion. His conversations soounded bewildered; he did not eat and lost weight.

In a divining session with the diviner Akai, it turned out that Francs needed a second wen-bogluk. According to my previous knowledge, two bogluta are built when two suns are seen in the sky at sunrise. Here, however, the second shrine is probably meant to increase its effect against a disease.

 This time, I spent the night before the ritual in Asik Yeri, and I heard the rattle of a diviner outside several times. Leander told me that Akai had to protect the compound from evil spirits during the night.

The soil in the hole was moistened with the da-puusa liquid and roots. Three feathers were plucked out of the white chicken and put into the three small balls of earth to the right of the calabash. The small clay pot with millet beer is on the top right.

At around 5.00 a.m., Akai’s voice was heard three times in front of the house: “Nyin pielim, ngoa fi wen” (Come out and receive your wen). The first time, Leander replied, “Francis kan nyini” (Francis does not come out). The second time, he replied, “Nya ka wie le boro ate wa kan nyini” (See, there are problems because of which he is not coming out). The third time, he replied, “Ka zaana ale boro” (there is a difficulty).

The following partial rites (leading out, hitting the boy with the rattle at the entrance, and blowing ashes, among others) were similar to those described above.

There was a discussion about whether the earth for the shrine should be dug at the footpath leading to Francis’ mother’s parents’ house (in Wiaga-Farinsa) or his mother’s mother’s residence (in Kadema). Only at the last minute did the diviner determine that it should be the latter.

After burning the straw, making one big and three small clay balls from the earth dug out of the hole and the waaung-soluk root medicine, and pressing the stone into the mud ball, everyone moved into the house where rites and sacrifices similar to those in 1973 were also performed.

 

 

2. Anyenangdu Yeri (Badomsa), 16 October 1988: The wen-piirika held for Anamogsi’s daughter-in-law, Apuyiilalie

She had been ailing for a long time and visited her parents’ house in Wiaga-Chiok to recover. There, her father went to a diviner who ordered a wen-piirika (in Anyenangdu Yeri), which was necessary for healing.

Deviating from the rituals described so far, this wen-piirika was not performed by a diviner but by Anamogsi, the compound head and father-in-law of the woman concerned. The femininity of the wen recipient found expression in the fact that threefold actions in the earlier rites were now replaced by fourfold actions. For example, four small clay balls were made, and the young woman had to spit four times into the hole of the wet clay ball. Anamogsi also gave me a plausible explanation for making the small and large clay balls. There are two different components of wen: wen-biok (the evil wen) and wen-nalung (the good wen). The evil wen in the four small balls had to be separated from the good wen in the large ball and discarded (cf. Kröger 2020).

Anamogsi found the wen stone only after the large, damp clay ball had already been made. He opened it with a larger stone and found the small stone inside, which was to serve as an offering stone from then on. Instead of rubbing the body with a root fibre and da-binta, as is customary in the baano-wen ritual (performed by a diviner), Anamogsi poured clear water from his hand on his daughter-in-law’s hair four times.

Apuuyiilalie carried her new shrine herself to the compound, where it found its place in her bedroom in her husband’s quarters. There, the husband offered it a chicken and, in the evening, clear water, millet porridge, and boiled chicken meat, while Anamogsi said the prayers.

 

3. Awenlami Yeri (Wiaga-Longsa), 8 December 1988: The wen-piirika performed by the diviner Akanming (Badomsa)

On 7 December 1988, Asoji, the yeri-nyono of Awenlami Yeri, announced the wen-piirika of a woman for the next day in Akanming’s compound.

In front of the Awenlami Yeri, Akanming asked me to switch off my torch. The pobsika with the woman at the compound entrance was performed by Akanming’s son Ajacke. This proxy is possible because the pobsika is actually not performed by Akanming the diviner but by the spirit of his rattle. Akanming, who was somewhat disabled, arrived later. The following acts differed somewhat from those of Asik Yeri and Anyenangdu Yeri. In a calabash, a woman brought a reddish residue (da-busing) from pito making, which was diluted with clear water. Akanming threw into the red mass a dark red root fibre brought from a tree whose roots reached into a river. From white kazagsa fibre, he formed a carrying pad (tuilik) for a small clay pot filled with pito. That this was a ritual and not a practically necessary activity is shown by the fact that this action was also carried out in exactly the same way in all subsequent wen-piirika rituals performed by a diviner, and the fibre ring was later disposed of in the hole with the other “bad” things. Akanming told me that he was not allowed to tell me about the ritual significance of this ring. Perhaps the evil components of the millet beer had also been drawn into this ring.

Akanming then scraped up the soil on the footpath with a hoe and poured water into the resulting hole. He formed a rough bowl from the excavated earth, poured some millet beer into it four times, and mixed and kneaded it with the earth.

When the sun became visible behind a layer of clouds, he formed one large and one (!) small ball from the earth and put four white feathers from a small chicken into the small ball. He then rubbed the woman’s body with the white chicken. According to Akanming, all evil and guilt (wa-kaasima) passed from the woman to the chicken.

He pressed a hole into the big ball, and the woman spat into it four times. Then, Akanming pressed a stone he had brought from home into the clay ball; he said that it symbolised the sun (wen-bini).

After the procession to the compound, Akanming held the clay ball three times over the intended location and only pressed it firmly on the ground the fourth time. Before sacrificing a brown chicken, the woman had to touch its foot, and the chicken had to drink some millet beer from Akanming’s finger. Then, Akanming sacrificed a guinea fowl and some millet beer from a small calabash. The two chickens were later cooked, and pieces of their meat and liver were offered to the new shrine along with millet porridge.

The meat of the two chickens was divided according to fixed rules: one leg of the guinea fowl (kpong) was given to Asoji’s mother, who owned the courtyard, and one leg to Asoji, the compound head. The wife of the compound head received one wing of the guinea fowl. The husband of the shrine recipient (?) received the second wing. After making long speeches of thanks and drinking millet beer, a diviner’s session took place, resulting in all rites being performed correctly. Only after this did the greetings take place between the guests and housemates of Awenlami Yeri. As payment, Akanming received: the small white chicken (for his son Ajacke, who was not allowed to eat it himself, as it was loaded with the woman’s debt); one bunch of zamonta; one calabash of unginned peanuts; one jug of millet beer; the rest of the two sacrificed chickens; one chicken as an offering for his divining spirit (jadok) in Badomsa; and a chicken for me. Earlier, a woman had brought a large jug of millet beer to Akanming Yeri, which was shared among the residents of this compound in the evening.

After returning to his compound, Akanming made offerings on the roof of his divination room (jadok-dok) to the following shrines: the earthen crocodile sculpture (the actual jadok shrine), the wen of the jadok, three medicine horns (his jadok’s horn, the tongnaab horn, and his father’s Pung Muning horn), and the large medicine pot (front left).

 

4. Ateebnaab Yeri (Wiaga-Mutuensa), 30 December 1988: Wen-piirika performed by the diviner Akanming (see above)

On 29 December, before this wen-piirika, I was able to participate in the previous day’s offerings, in which Akanming informed important supernatural beings of his household about the following day’s event. He offered millet water (zom) to the following bogluta: his father Awasiboa’s ancestral shrine in front of the compound, his mother’s ma-wen (two stones [endnote 12b] by the footpath), his two horns with the soil of the tanggbain Pung Muning (Badomsa), his own tintueta-wen, his divination jadok (ngauk; crocodile), a clay relief on the roof of his divination room, and at the same time its accessories (the two divination rattles, two filled horns, divination bag, associated medicine pot, and other objects).

The yeri-nyono of the Ateebnaab Yeri compound, a middle school graduate and practising Catholic who had previously worked at the Wiaga Catholic clinic, could not actively participate in some rites (e.g., the final divination session) as a Christian. His son, who was about one year old, suffered from shortness of breath and convulsions.

The following rituals were very similar to those in Awenlami Yeri (no. 3). Minor deviations resulted from the young age of the shrine recipient. He could not spit into the clay ball, but his saliva was pressed into it three times with his father’s finger. A similar procedure was followed when, later, the little boy had to drink (or rather lick) millet water from his father’s finger. Inside the compound, a large black chicken was sacrificed this time. The new shrine was carried into the compound by the child’s father. The welcoming ceremony again took place after the divination session.

As payment, Akanming received a large pot of pito, which a woman brought to Akanming Yeri; a large calabash of zamonta (sorghum) millet; a grey chicken; the small white chicken; and as a voluntary gift, another cooked guinea fowl.

At about 1.00 p.m., we were back at Akanming Yeri. Here, Akanming once again offered first millet water and then millet beer to his jadok (with accessories) on the flat roof. The diviner’s rattles did not receive an offering this time. (He had probably forgotten them.)

 

5. Akanjoliba Yeri (Wiaga Mutuensa), 5 January 1989: The wen-piirika performed by the diviner Akanming.

(The events in this compound were  documented mainly on a video film.)

The shrine recipient was a girl of  who suffered from mental confusion and could not converse normally. This was also shown in the rites by Akanming taking hold of her head on the footpath before the rites began and massaging her head with a hand in which he held medicine.

Both the preparatory sacrifices on 1 January in Akanming Yeri and the actual rituals in Mutuensa were very similar to the previous two (3 and 4).

A small, somewhat embarrassing incident preceded the wen-piirika. Again, Akanming had sent his youngest son Ajacke and me ahead to perform the pobsika. Unfortunately, we had rattled at the wrong compound, and Akanming, who had rushed over, had to explain the mistake to the excited inhabitants.

 

6. Abasitemi Yeri (Wiaga-Badomsa), 13 January 1989: The wen-piirika performed by the diviner and yeri-nyono Ayomo

Ayomo’ father’s father had moved from Gbedema to Badomsa, his mother’s lineage. This might be the reason that some rituals differ from those observed in the Badomsa patrilineage.

The shrine recipient of this wen-piirika was his newly married blind wife from Kadema.

I had been waiting in front of the compound since 5.20 when Ayomo came rattling to the main entrance from the back of the compound at 5.45. He fetched some light ash from one of the fireplaces and performed the pobsika at the entrance with his wife (who, of course, did not have her eyes covered). This time, the ritual of the burning fire on the footpath leading to the wife’s parents’ house was not carried out.

Similar to what Akanming did, Ayomo pounded two pieces of root in a mortar and mixed them with the red da-buusa pito residue. It was somewhat extraordinary to me that after the sun appeared, he first started forming four small clay balls (for the four white feathers) and the large ball into which his wife spat four times. He only pressed the stone into the ball inside the house. A discussion ensued about where the new shrine should be located, and the decision to place it in Ayomo’s own square building was again somewhat unusual. The offerings were again in line with the way I knew them: millet water, one dark chicken, one guinea fowl, and millet beer were offered to the new shrine but also to Ayomo’s divination bag and rattle, after the woman held or at least touched them. After the midday offerings (water, chicken, millet porridge with sauce, water, and millet beer), the divining session took place not in Ayomo’s divination room (jadok dok) but in the room of the new shrine. Afterwards, the following shrines received a pito offering: the new chameleon shrine built a few days earlier at the main grain store of the courtyard, the divination bag with the rattle and the jadok horn, and the shrines of Ayomo’s ancestors at one side of the compound. Only at 5.00 p.m. did he make offerings to the Pung Muning horn and four jadok shrines in the middle of his courtyard. Then, the thanksgiving took place. Payments were not offered, as all the main actors were from Ayomo’s own compound.

 

7. Angaung Yeri (Wiaga-Kubelinsa), 30 March 1989: The wen-piirika performed by the diviner Akanming

The shrine recipient was a wife  who was considered quarrelsome and had caused several conflicts in the compound.

After the first rites were conducted in a manner very similar to those of earlier wen-piirika celebrations, the ritual of rubbing the woman was much more elaborate this time. Akanming held the white chicken and the da-buusa with roots on the head of the woman standing in front of the hole and said a prayer. He rubbed the woman’s whole body with the things in his hand: chest, thighs, legs, head, back of the head, back, buttocks, legs, lower legs, both arms, and both hands. Then, he passed the chicken and da-buusa around both feet and pressed the chicken firmly into one of the woman’s hands. The woman squatted down, and Akanming handed her the clay ball with an indented hole four times. She spat into it each time, and Akanming kneaded the ball. Only then did he press the stone he had brought with him into the big ball of clay, separate part of the big clay ball into a small ball, and placed it in the hole before inserting the four white feathers.

The woman carried the new shrine into the compound to the sound of Akanming’s rattling. After the usual offerings to the new shrine, we went to the open kitchen of the main courtyard (dabiak) where we were shown three jugs of millet beer. The smaller one was immediately poured out for drinking, while a woman of the compound carried a larger one to Akanming Yeri. The midday offerings and also the payment to Akanming were again exactly like the earlier wen-piirika rituals.